Space junk is a dangerous problem, particularly in low-earth orbit (LEO). The US Joint Space Operations Center tracked 21,000 objects less than 10 centimeters across, mainly in LEO.
The overcrowding of LEO from satellites and debris poses a significant risk to new space missions that must travel through the LEO environment. As the junk debris mounts, collisions are inevitable, and we move closer to the possibility of the dreaded Kessler Syndrome.
The Japanese equivalent of NASA, JAXA, has undertaken the task of cleaning up the junk. Their recent successful mission is ARDAS-J, which captured images of a 15-year-old booster rocket, discarded during a JAXA launch.
ADRAS-J, a satellite operated by the Japanese company Astroscale, captured this up-close photo of its rendezvous target, the spent upper stage of a Japanese H-2A rocket, in Earth orbit. Astroscale released the image on April 26, 2024. (Image credit: Astroscale)
The images are amazing and a prelude to a planned capture of the booster in a future mission to drag it to a lower orbit that would lead the junk to burn up in Earth’s upper atmosphere.